The nursing home administrator where a dozen patients died following Hurricane Irma, back in 2017, is fully cleared of any criminal wrongdoing.
The judge today quickly returned a ruling that he would not reconsider his decision to abruptly stop the trial of Jorge Carballo based on lack of evidence.
Prosecutor Chuck Morton maintained Carballo was criminally, culpably negligent for, instead of evacuating patients, allowing them to remain in a sweltering Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills for days.
While 12 died, Carballo was charged with nine counts of aggravated manslaughter.
Carballo's attorney wants an apology from prosecutors for what they've put him through for years.
After the decision, Broward State Attorney Harold F. Pryor and the Broward State Attorney’s Office released this statement:
“We respectfully accept Judge Murphy’s decision, though we strongly disagree with much of the court’s findings and wish that a jury of Mr. Jorge Carballo’s peers had been allowed to reach a verdict.
The tragic deaths of 12 senior citizens who resided at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills in 2017 deeply shocked and affected our community. I pursued criminal charges related to nine of those deaths because I, and my prosecutors, firmly believed the evidence showed those deaths were the result of culpable negligence.
I think we can all agree that all of us would want our family members to have been treated with much more care and concern.
We respectfully accept the judge’s decision, though we strongly disagree with it. We thank the judge for giving both parties a fair and well-conducted trial.”
The judge's decision today can not be appealed.
(Photo by Angel Valentin/Getty Images)